haiku-2
Explanation
Two men are sitting on a bus. One says: "It was rotten fish, man. My guts turned inside out." A woman sitting nearby interjects: "Sparrows in moonlight." The caption reads: "Any time you hear a 12-syllable phrase, you can turn it into a haiku."
The joke plays on the structure of haiku, which follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern totaling 17 syllables. The comic's premise is that any 12-syllable phrase can serve as the first two lines of a haiku (5+7=12), and then you just add a poetic-sounding 5-syllable phrase to finish it. The man's crude, visceral complaint about food poisoning ("It was rotten fish, man. My guts turned inside out") happens to be 12 syllables, and the woman completes it with the elegant, nature-inspired "Sparrows in moonlight" (5 syllables). The humor comes from the jarring tonal contrast between the gross, colloquial setup and the serene, classically poetic conclusion, as well as from the idea that someone walks around listening for 12-syllable utterances to ambush-complete into haiku. It also gently mocks the haiku form by suggesting its beauty is somewhat mechanical and arbitrary.